


Monster Rules

by ListeningBoy



Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms
Genre: Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Non-Graphic Violence, Pre-Canon, child Light
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 11:40:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15023795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ListeningBoy/pseuds/ListeningBoy
Summary: Light is eight when he first realizes that adult monsters don't have rules.





	Monster Rules

Light is eight when he first realizes that adult monsters don't have rules.

He's watching TV. The news. A criminal’s image is being shown, a killer, a real monster, and he knows the face, it's the same one that's been on his father's computer every night for weeks. The face that haunted his father for weeks.

He's finally been caught, and the rules say that he'll go to jail. That he'll be away from all the good people, that they'll be safe again, that no one will have to be afraid to be alone in their own house anymore.

Instead he's set free. When the boy hears the news he almost cries. _Free_ , a monster is returning to the streets, to terrorize innocents again, to terrorize Sayu and Mother and _Father_ , who he knows will lay awake for many nights to come, wishing he'd found enough evidence to put the man away for good.

Kid monsters have rules, and they follow them. The werewolf that lives in the woods doesn't chase you unless you step past the gravel path just inside the tree line, the fairies that steal children in story books can be tricked with riddles and games. His own personal monster was a crocodile, a beast that slept under his bed and swam through the floor, but it wouldn't even nibble his toes if he wasn't barefoot.

Adult monsters were very different from kid monsters.

_

Light is ten the first time he sees an adult monster in person.

He doesn't know it at first. She doesn't look like a monster, she looks like a lady, sitting out on a porch one day when he is walking home. It is hot, and dry, and the lady sees him and invites him over for something to drink, says she has a cooler in her car, if he'd be so kind as to help her take it out he can have some of her soda from inside.

He says no only because he has plans, Sayu has asked him to make cookies as soon as he gets home, and he can't be late or she will be disappointed and that's not allowed. So off he goes, a little faster than before, leaving the lady behind on her porch.

Two weeks later his father talks of a kidnapping case.

Someone has taken a little boy, just nine years old, on his way to school one morning. The police have no leads and no suspects, the witnesses are contradicting each other, and they can't keep their stories straight, and this little boy is probably scared out of his mind, and _Father, what street did you say he took?_

It's a street just one over from the one he takes. Almost all the witnesses agree it was a woman who took him, except for one, an older man who lives a street over from the scene of the crime, who was watching through his backyard and swears he saw a large man shove the boy in a truck.

The case is simple after it's found that the man lives in the same house that Light had nearly stopped at the week before. He swears up and down that no woman has ever lived there, but they're able to pull information from the neighbours, that he's had a visitor come and go throughout the years, and one such visit happened not long ago. Light is able to describe her, and her car, and suddenly his father is staying at the police station overnight and drawings of the lady are all over the TV and then one day he hears the news, _they've found her, she's in custody_ , and _we're safe again._

The boy is still missing.

He's missing until he's not, and that’s when his family misses him the most.

A boy who should be turning ten, who should be out with friends, enjoying his summer and loathing the return of the school year, is found with knife wounds on his throat and stomach and worse on his legs.

The adults throw around words that he doesn't understand, but he figures out that there are more kids, taken from their families, who have been missing much longer. The lady had taken them all and there was little hope that they'd be found in any better condition than the boy had.

When he is ten Light wonders is adult monsters have secret rules. Because he thought that he won, that even without the rules in place the ending would still be the same, because no matter what game you're playing the most points means a win, but here he is watching a lady be arrested and jailed and the children haven't been rescued. There's not a happy ending.

He keeps his idea of secret rules in mind for months, and when the time comes for his parents to buy him gifts for the holidays and his birthday he only asks for one. A computer of his own, so he can do his research privately.

There are a great many monsters with secret rules.

_

Light is twelve when his father is possessed by a ghost.

It's not obvious at first. He comes home, eats supper with the rest of them. He's quiet, but that's not so unusual. That happens sometimes, when work is hard and the hours are long.

After dinner he goes into the fridge and grabs a can of beer. Takes it into the living room. Watches TV. Also not too abnormal, though he usually only drinks on his day off. Light wonders if he's gotten a day off unexpectedly, and if perhaps they'll go out somewhere tomorrow.

Father doesn't have just one beer this time. He has two. Then three. Mother looks upset when he gets up for a fourth, and she follows him to the kitchen.

A minute later he hears a yelp and a smack.

Father comes out with another beer.

Light takes Sayu by the hand and brings her to bed.

The next morning he is up early, and on the way down the stairs he hears his parents talking, and Father is apologizing, saying that he didn't mean it, didn't know what he was doing, oh, Light isn't sure why he didn't realize it before, it's so obvious now. His father is possessed.

This is a good thing. Ghosts are monsters with secret rules, things that they hide from and things that they run from. There are words that can scare them away, but he thinks that only special people can say them properly. There's smaller things he can do, though.

By the time night comes again he has a plan. Father has a beer again, his second, but he's had it for a while so maybe he's just going to drink it and go to bed, and Light will know the ghost has left.

It reveals itself when Sayu comes into the living room to play.

She's carrying a stuffed bear, singing to it, swinging it around, and she dances a little to close to the TV, steps in front of it for a second, and is gone again in and instant. It happens a few times more. One time is different. Father gets mad.

He yells. Sayu has never heard Father yell, and Light remembers only one time, when he'd been about to burn himself and was saved by his father's voice warning him of danger. The man has never yelled in anger before today.

Sayu is _stupid_ , and _loud_ , and _get the_ fuck _out of here, can't you see I'm trying to rest_ , and Mother comes out to stare at him. Tells Light and Sayu to go to bed. She stays to talk with him.

A detour is made before Light goes to his room. He sneaks into the kitchen and grabs the salt shaker, then runs upstairs and slams his door shut behind him as soon as he's safely in his room.

Salt is one of those secret rules. Ghosts can't pass it, if you use it right. Light knows how to use it right. He lines the windows with salt, then the floor just in front of his door. Once he's safe he sleeps knowing that he's safe. When he wakes up the next morning he knows his plan works, and he's prepared to salt his windows and door every night until he can find a proper solution to his ghost problem.

Unfortunately his mother puts a stop to that. She comes into his room before he can clean the salt, and of course she notices, just as she notices every mess he makes so she can remind him to have it cleaned soon. He lies easily, tells her he was using the salt for a game, but he knows he won't be able to do this again without her checking on him.

When his father returns home this time, it's different.

He talks. Smiles. Doesn't go into the fridge after dinner, or retreat to the couch to watch TV. Mother sits with him at the table after the plates have been cleared and they chat while he entertains Sayu.

They learn that Father has finally caught a bad guy, and this one is surely going to be charged. Light thinks that perhaps this ghost was one of the man's victims.

He looks up new ways to keep away ghosts. Just in case.

Sometimes they're needed. Sometimes he hides. A few times he tries to fight. Ghosts can hurt him, though, so he goes back to hiding soon after.

He thinks about rules a lot. About the monsters that follow them, and the monsters that don't. The monsters that straddle that line, following hidden rules that govern only themselves, as if with just the right rules they can do what they want without fear of consequences.

Sometimes they're right.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic, written between the hours of 9pm and 1:30am without any sleep. Hopefully there will be more to come in the future, but for now I hope you like this :)
> 
> Main Tumblr: http://listeningboy.tumblr.com  
> Death Note Tumblr: http://the-real-death-note-victim.tumblr.com  
> Original Works: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LOTW


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